


come and knock on our door

by somehowunbroken



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Roommates, the vague concept of gritty being real and also slightly magical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-02-23 00:02:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23002516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somehowunbroken/pseuds/somehowunbroken
Summary: Nolan needs to move out of his apartment building for... reasons. Enter Kevin Hayes and his giant house.Also enter Gritty.
Relationships: Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick
Comments: 76
Kudos: 376
Collections: Flyers Fic Exchange





	come and knock on our door

**Author's Note:**

  * For [niblet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/niblet/gifts).



> ahhhh i hope you have as much fun reading this as i had writing it! i sort of combined your "kevin and gritty should be roommates" prompt with the idea of tk/nolan, and, well.
> 
> thanks to c and d for reading this through!
> 
> why yes, the title IS a line from the "three's company" theme, thanks for noticing!

Nolan moves in with Kevin Hayes because--

Well.

He moves in with Kevin for no reason at all, he tells himself and everyone who asks, because Kevin seems like a nice guy, and Nolan wants a change. Kevin tells him that he'd asked a few different people, and most of them had said no but he was still waiting on one answer, and would Nolan mind if it wasn't just the two of them? And, like, it's Kevin's house, and he already knows it's not TK, and he can be good with whoever else on the team wants to spend a year living in one of Kevin's guest rooms, so Nolan shrugs and figures that's a good enough answer.

As it turns out, he _really_ should've fucking asked, because--

"This one's mine," Kevin says, gesturing at one of the doors. "And this one's Gritty's, but there's three other ones you can pick from, so--"

"Wait, hold the fuck on," Nolan says, pausing. "That's _who_?"

"Gritty," Kevin says cheerily. "Apparently they were just gonna crash at the Farg for the season again, but once they came by and saw the sweet views I've got here, they said they'd rather live here."

"They… said," Nolan says weakly. "They talk? Gritty talks?"

Kevin shrugs, apparently unbothered that he invited the embodiment of an evil dust bunny to live in his guest room. "I mean, you kind of get the hang of understanding them after a while," he says.

"You have been on this team for fourteen seconds," Nolan says flatly. "How is that 'a while?'"

Kevin laughs. "Whatever, man," he says. "The one all the way at the end of the hall has a pretty sweet closet, but the one next to Gritty has nicer windows. The other one has a bunch of shit in it right now because it's the smallest one, but if that's your jam, I'll clear it out."

"I'll take the one with the closet," Nolan says immediately. He doesn't have to admit that it's because it puts a whole entire room between him and Gritty. It's enough to know that for himself.

"Cool, good choice," Kevin says. "You need help getting your shit moved in? Me and Gritty would be happy to help you out with it. They're super strong."

"Yeah, I think I'm good," Nolan says. "I'll, uh. I'll let you know if I need anything, okay?"

"Sure thing, bud," Kevin says, turning and heading back down the hallway. "Roommate dinner at six, okay? I'm ordering in. Only the best for the best house in the Flyers organisation."

"Sure, yeah," Nolan says weakly.

He debates the merits of standing in the hallway and glaring at Gritty's door for a solid three-count before deciding that, no, that's weird, so he turns and heads down the hall. The room he'd chosen is really nice, he finds, and Kevin had actually undersold how big the closet is. It's plenty of space for him and all the shit he needs for a season, so he heads out to his car to grab some stuff and haul it back inside.

He makes three trips down and back; he's probably got two more, he judges as he heads back outside. He could try to get it all at once, but he doesn't really want to drop something and have to pick up a bunch of shoes or whatever, so two trips it is. He slings a bag over his shoulder and grabs a box, and then he turns around, and--

"Holy _fuck_ ," he yelps, thankfully tightening his fingers on the box instead of dropping it.

Gritty's standing a few feet away, not moving at all except for their fur--hair?--blowing gently in the breeze. Nolan hadn't heard them at _all_.

"Uh," Nolan says, trying to calm his heart. "Um. Hi?"

Gritty stares.

"Okay, cool," Nolan says weakly. "I'm gonna, uh."

Gritty takes a step towards him, and Nolan falls silent, watching. They stop again, like they're judging him, and then they step cautiously forward again and again until they're next to Nolan. Their belly sways, and it lands like a gentle hip check, making Nolan stumble a few steps ahead. He turns, watching as Gritty reaches into the car, stacking the last two boxes on top of each other and lifting them before turning, belly checking the door shut and watching Nolan expectantly.

"Oh, uh," Nolan says. "You don't have to--"

Gritty shifts the boxes in their hands, and the squeaking noise echoes off the car.

"Yo," Kevin calls from the porch, and Nolan whips his head around to look at him. "Patty, Gritty, get in here. Dump those boxes in Patty's room and then get in the living room. There's a _Say Yes to the Dress_ marathon and that shit is required viewing in this household."

There's a noise from behind Nolan, and then Gritty's pushing past him, almost running towards the house.

Kevin laughs and holds the door open, and Gritty pushes past him, disappearing into the house. "Gritty fucking loves _Say Yes to the Dress_ ," he says. "You'd better get in here fast if you want a good seat."

"I would've guessed _Nailed It_ ," Nolan says before he can stop himself, finally getting his feet going and moving towards the house.

"Oh, don't get them started on _Nailed It_ ," Kevin says. "They've got some _Nailed It_ opinions, and I'm pretty sure if they get going on that again, we're gonna end up having Flyers TV over to recreate it."

Nolan thinks about watching Gritty cook, watching Gritty make some sort of Gritty cake monstrosity, possibly having to eat Gritty cake that Gritty made in the kitchen he shares with Gritty. "Yeah, cool, no _Nailed It_ ," he says. "Got it."

"That's the spirit," Kevin says, clapping him on the back as Nolan walks past him.

Gritty is already on the sofa, and when Nolan hurries into his room, he sees that the boxes Gritty carried in have already been unpacked, everything exactly where Nolan himself would've put it.

"Nope," he decides, putting his boxes down quickly and turning to head back out of the room.

He can deal with that approximately never. That sounds good right about now.

-0-

So training camp happens, and preseason happens, and the season starts, and Nolan's not playing. It's whatever, it's _so_ whatever, but it means that he spends a lot of time by himself at home because the guys are on the road.

Or, like.

He's never by himself at home, because Gritty doesn't travel with the team, and Nolan really… doesn't know how to feel about that.

It's not like he forgets that Gritty's there; he lives with a seven-foot-tall neon orange yarn factory dropout, and it's honestly really hard to forget that even when he's trying to. He's never jerked off less in his life; on the other hand, if he ever gets an inconvenient boner again, he can just think about his new worst nightmare of Gritty bursting into his room while he's got his hand down his pants, and that problem will solve itself. Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean Nolan's not just waiting for the day it does.

So he's not _alone_ alone, but Kevin's not there, and TK's not a couple floors away, and there's only so much he can text with how dicey his head is right now. Gritty doesn't talk, and no matter how much Kevin insists that they're not that hard to understand, Nolan can only take so much silent staring before he's too creeped out to function.

He's basically alone, he guesses.

Except that's not true either, because Gritty keeps _trying_. Nolan will be sitting there wondering if he can manage both cooking and eating, and he'll hear something in the kitchen, and when he goes to investigate there'll be a Wawa hoagie with his regular order receipt taped to it sitting on a plate. He'll spend way too long dragging himself from the living room to his bedroom because he can't face pulling the curtains so he can sleep, only to find them already pulled shut when he makes it down the hallway. He'll be debating whether or not the smell of their laundry soap is going to trigger a migraine, but when he decides to risk it anyway, finds that all of the clothes in his hamper are already clean and folded and absolutely scentless.

 _so how s living with gritty??_ TK texts, and then _also hows yr head_ and then _fuck immaking it worse sry_.

 _you can't text and that's the only thing hurting me right now_ , Nolan shoots back. _grittys gritty ig?_

 _awesome,_ TK texts, and then he sends nine different flag emojis with no explanation, and Nolan decides that he'd rather deal with Gritty than try to decipher what's going on there. TK's been kind of relentlessly TK this season, and Nolan moved out so he didn't have to deal with that up close, but it turns out that it's no easier to handle from Kevin's guest room.

And he's got Gritty, which is… well, it sure is, Nolan thinks.

-0-

"Yo, Gritso," Kevin calls, leaning over the back of the sofa and yelling down the hall.

Nolan grimaces, but Gritty appears a moment later. Nolan's almost used to how silently they can move around. Almost.

Kevin points at the television. "They said someone's got a sit-down interview with G coming up, so--"

Gritty's hands flail in the air and then slap against their belly, and it's a squeaking, jiggling nightmare. Nolan can't look away as Gritty speedwalks into the living room and plants themself a foot and a half from the screen like a giant Cheeto toddler.

"Sit back," he mumbles before he can stop himself.

Gritty turns very, very slowly until their eyes meet.

Nolan clears his throat and thinks back to everything he knows about showing dominance over a wild animal. "Sit back," he says more clearly. "You're gonna get a headache if you sit that close."

Gritty keeps staring, but Nolan holds eye contact, and after a minute Gritty whips back around to the screen fast enough to get the google eyes going and pointedly scoots back about six inches.

Nolan's ready to call this a solid win, but then the news program cuts back to their sports anchor talking to G and Gritty starts clapping their hands, and there's no way to call that much squeaking anything other than a complete and utter disaster.

"Aw," Kevin says, grinning fondly at Gritty's back. "Cute, right?"

"Oh, so you're a sociopath," Nolan says, as if he's just realising it, and Kevin just laughs.

-0-

Kevin had been pretty clear about being totally fine with them having people over; he's got this idea in his head about the team as a family, and Nolan's been with the Flyers long enough to know better than to try to talk him out of it. TK drops by sometimes, which is just great for Nolan's plan to ignore everything TK-related so he can get over the weird feeling in his stomach when he has to deal with things, and sometimes some of the older guys come over to shoot the shit with Kevin, but it's not like they constantly have people over.

Nolan stops short in the living room, staring at the sofa and wondering faintly if this counts as _having people over,_ because Gritty and the Philly Phanatic are sitting on the sofa, both eerily still, hands on their thighs. They're staring straight at the television, which is on but the cable box isn't, so it's just kind of flickering black and darker black.

"Uh," Nolan says faintly, and then he turns around and power walks into his bedroom. He shuts and locks the door, and then he sits heavily on his bed for a moment, staring vacantly at the wall until he realises that that's basically what Gritty and the Phanatic are doing in the living room, and then he shakes his head and digs his phone out, pulling up his text thread with Kevin.

_hayesy the phillly phanatic is in the living room_  
_they have the tv on but they're just watching the load screen_

It takes a few minutes for Kevin to reply, and Nolan resolutely does not spend that time thinking about how the lock on his door wouldn't hold them back if they were actually trying to get in, not at all. _oh haha yeah they said their cousin might be coming over!! that's cool man_

Cool, Nolan thinks a little hysterically, is not the word he'd use. _dude wtf_ , he settles on.

 _i think the phanatic likes corn chips_ , Kevin replies. _there's some in the pantry behind the wheat germ if they're hungry._

"Kevin Hayes would like me to offer the Philly Phanatic a snack," Nolan says, testing the words out. They sound just as ridiculous out loud as they had in his head, unfortunately.

 _i KNEW the wheat germ was a fucking lie,_ is what he texts back, because, well. He had known, and also, that's the part of this that he can handle.

He does not go move the wheat germ to get the corn chips out, even though he would kind of kill for a snack right now. No part of him wants to experience even a second more of whatever's happening in the living room, so he just stays put and dicks around on his phone until he hears the front door open and shut, and then he cautiously opens his bedroom door and peeks out.

There's a snack size bag of Fritos sitting in front of his door, and Nolan debates leaving them there for a long, long moment before he sighs and reaches out to snag them.

Whatever. A snack's a snack.

-0-

The worst fucking part about having a migraine disorder is that the reporters absolutely will not fucking stop asking him about it.

Or, well, _obviously_ the worst part is the actual migraines, but the reporters are a really close second.

"It just sucks," he says as flatly as he can manage. "We're trying new stuff, figuring it out. I'll be back as soon as I'm cleared, but like Fletch said, there's no timeline yet."

"Nolan," one of the guys says, and Nolan just wants this to _end_.

There's a commotion from the other side of the locker room, and half of the reporters turn. "Uh," one of them says cautiously. "What's Gritty… doing?"

Nolan glances over at that. Gritty is standing on the other side of the locker room holding what looks like one of Hartsy's goalie sticks in their hands, and they're walking very, very slowly towards the group of reporters clustered around Nolan.

"Hey, Gritty," another reporter says, using some kind of talking-to-animals voice that Nolan's willing to bet his entire ELC isn't going to play well.

Gritty turns slowly to face the reporter. They stand perfectly still, and then they fling their arm to the side, using the goalie stick to knock over a laundry bin and send it bouncing across the floor, dirty practice jerseys flying everywhere.

There's dead silence for a solid three-count, and then one of the reporters makes a tiny, high-pitched noise, and the throng breaks as they all rush to get the fuck away from Gritty.

Nolan watches them all go, and then turns back to where Gritty's standing next to the laundry bin. It's back where it had started, jerseys piled back in it, even though there hadn't been enough time or sound for Gritty to clean the whole thing up already. Nolan makes the command decision to take that entirely in stride. "Uh," he says, nodding at Gritty. "Thanks, bud."

Gritty drops Hartsy's goalie stick and clasps their hands together in front of their body, activating the squeakers just slightly one after the other, and Nolan winces and leans back in his stall as Gritty starts doing what Nolan's guessing is a happy dance around the locker room.

-0-

"Hey, so," TK says. He's standing in the doorway of Nolan's room, hands jammed into his hoodie pocket, hair falling out from under his backwards snapback. He looks like an absolute ball of grease, and Nolan desperately wants him to be anywhere else, because he can handle how into the whole general concept of TK he is a lot better when he doesn't have to actually look at TK. "I feel like… I don't know. I know you've got your migraine thing, but I feel like I never see you anymore."

"Yeah, it's _my migraine thing_ ," Nolan says, half grasping at the excuse and half not being able to resist mocking TK's choice of phrasing. "Kinda fucked up my social life, y'know."

TK shrugs and takes a step into the room. "Okay, but you said you've been feeling better," he says. "And you hang out with Hayesy and Grits a lot. Any chance I can, like, reserve a slot? Get some Patty and Teeks time in?"

Nolan twists his fingers in his bedspread. "Uh."

TK takes another step forward. "C'mon," he says, smiling his crooked little smile. "I miss you, bud."

Nolan's heart is about to beat right the fuck out of his chest, run down the hall, and disappear into the laundry room. "Teeks," he says, hearing how weak it comes out and hating everything.

There's a sound from the door, and suddenly Gritty is thundering into Nolan's room. Their eyes are jiggling around rapid-fire, going from TK to Nolan and back again, and then they walk farther into the room, planting themself firmly in front of Nolan, facing TK.

"Uh," TK says faintly. "Gritso? Buddy? I'm trying to have a conversation--"

Gritty plants their hands on their hips, and it's not like the squeaking could ever sound threatening, but… actually, no, Nolan decides. It sort of sounds threatening.

"Hey, uh," Nolan says, forcing his fingers to let go of the bedspread. "Gritty? Bud?"

Gritty whirls around so quickly that everything wiggles, and they just sort of stare at each other for a moment as the belly and eyes calm down.

"I get that you're, like," Nolan says, waving his hand and hoping it encompasses _my roommate_ and _kind of overprotective_ and _maybe possibly psychic_. "But, like. Let me talk to Teeks, bud. He's not gonna hurt me."

Gritty tilts their head, like they're considering what Nolan's saying, and fuck, fine, okay. Hayesy was right; Nolan kind of _can_ tell what's going on there.

"Five minutes," he bargains. "And then we'll come watch HGTV with you."

Gritty's head jerks upright and they take two steps towards Nolan. They're close enough that Nolan can make out individual strands of fur, and normally that's what Nolan would choose to focus on, but he's kind of distracted by the way Gritty reaches out, slowly and hesitantly, to put a hand on Nolan's shoulder. The touch is brief, and then Gritty's turning and walking out of Nolan's room like this isn't the most bizarre day of Nolan's life by an entire order of magnitude.

"Uh," TK says. He's half-turned, staring out the door where Gritty had just disappeared. He stands motionless for a second before shaking himself and turning back to Nolan. "What the _fuck_ was that?"

He looks confused, caught somewhere between scared and pissed off, and there's a little divot between his eyebrows, and Nolan--

Nolan's not sure what he's going to do until he's already doing it, clambering off the bed and leaning into TK's space and pressing their mouths together. He pulls back quickly, feeling the heat flash in his cheeks, and he wishes he was wearing a hoodie like TK is so he'd have somewhere to jam his hands. "Uh," he says.

TK's eyes are wide, but there's a smile spreading all the way across his face, so bright that it's kind of hard to look at. "Dude."

"Don't," Nolan warns, but he can feel his mouth trying to turn up into a smile without permission from the rest of him.

"Dude," TK says again, and there's a little laugh in his voice as he reaches out to take Nolan's hand. "Here I thought I blew it and you were avoiding me, but you were just avoiding having a human feeling. I get it now."

"I will call Gritty back in here," Nolan threatens, but he's losing the fight against the smile, and TK just laughs as he leans in for a real kiss. It's good, and something in Nolan's chest feels lighter than it has in ages, but he has to pull back after a moment. "I was serious about the HGTV thing. We're gonna have to go watch people make bad decisions about houses they can't afford while Gritty gets wound up about interior decorating."

TK laughs and drops his head to Nolan's shoulder. "How can you tell what Gritty's thinking?"

Nolan shrugs, letting himself smile faintly as he drapes an arm over TK's shoulders and leads him out of the bedroom. "Oh," he says casually. "You get the hang of it after a while."

**Author's Note:**

> please know that nolan absolutely refuses to hook up with tk in his room, because the gritty walking in on them nightmare is REAL.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * A [Restricted Work] by [Annapods](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annapods/pseuds/Annapods) Log in to view. 




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